It’s always been a hobby of the media to try to anticipate the future. Look at magazines 60 years ago, and they were all predicting colonies on the moon and personal jet packs. We may have become a bit more realistic in our expectations nowadays, but we still love trying to predict exactly what’s to come..
The motoring industry is no different. Technology has always been an area that we love to speculate about. The astronomically quick advances mean that change is often unpredictable, and we will never know exactly where we will be 10 years from now. Of course, this makes attempting to project the future all the more fun as a pastime. It can be outrageous and interesting, and tell us a lot about what our most major concerns are today. It will also be undoubtedly funny and interesting to look back on once the stated amount of time has passed. Often we have explored in completely different directions that we thought we would. And often the technology has developed in completely unexpected ways.
Well, none of that’s going to stop us. We still love to make broad and sweeping generalisations about what we think the future will look like. These might not be available secondhand from Motorline Direct any time soon, but they are developments which are certainly on the horizon. With that in mind, here are our most bold predictions for the near future of motoring technology.
Intelligent Windscreens
We’re already beginning to develop wearable technology. This means technology that you can keep on your person at all times and use to interact with the world. Many of the advances in this area are coming in the field of glasses, which display graphics on a transparent screen. There is no reason to believe that this technology won’t become a part of vehicle screens as well. You will no longer have to use a speed dial, as your MPH will be projected onto the screen. As will all of your phone’s details and messages etc.
Electric Cars
This prediction is already on its way to being true. There are already electric cars being installed in many homes across our country. And they have huge popularity in California and Norway, from which others are likely to catch on. The technology is just now becoming widely viable, and it is a cheap option as well. Add to this the environmental benefits and the fact that new models such as the Tesla Model S look like any other fashionable sedan, and you’ve got the recipe for success.
Self-Driving Cars
Now here’s one that’s quite out there. The technology is already being tested, with great success. This is not to say that it will be widely used for many years, but there could be some implications for the developments in the not too distant future. Self-aware cars could be able to soften the impact of accidents with last minute adjustments or work to save you fuel on long journeys. We might be far away from being in the passenger seat all the time, but there are bound to be some benefits in the mean time.